


Stark Survival

by ghostdreaming



Series: My Apex Alternate Universe Avengers [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Avengers Feels, Avengers as family, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, Civil War? What Civil War?, Don't actually have any medical knowlege here so sorry for that, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers, Multi, Not Beta Read, Other, Other Marvel Characters - Freeform, Polyfidelity, Protective Avengers, Starks have a history of violent deaths, Tony Feels, Tony Stark & Stark Bots, Tony Stark Has A Heart, and its fragile, sort of...maybe, soul bonds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-01-20 11:12:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1508408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostdreaming/pseuds/ghostdreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More in my Avengers AU.<br/>Tony's heart situation isn't in anyway simple and the surgery isn't such a fix-it as much as it is an impossibly bad scenario made worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I understand why they wanted to get rid of the arc-reactor, story progress wise, and that it's not what makes Tony the hero he is anymore than the suit does-he makes them significant not the other way around. But it was hard not to have problems with it for other reasons.

BUCKY

Tony Stark. So very much like his grandfather...

That same impossible intelligence always going full speed and running light-years ahead of those considered to be his peers and superiors....only unbelievably Tony was evidently beyond anything even Howard had been. That would have made the past Stark proud. Tony may have inherited the complexion of the more Mediterranean descended bloodline past down from other ancestors but that personality was noticeably from Howard. Howard hadn't backed down either. He hadn't played the power game like others...or like how they expected him to. That was what had gotten him The Winter Soldier sicced on him. After the war that mind of his had been wanted for so many scientific divisions involved in the Cold War especially military weaponry and the race to outer space. But Howard Stark hadn't co-operated with the idea of secretly making under-the-table deals with Nazi scientists that allowed torturers and mass murders to freely escape their war-crime criminal charges. He had forfeited his own life and freedom. Placing himself in so much danger that he had rather have permanent death at the hands of an assassin as feared as The Winter Soldier than let others take him and find ways to use his brilliance against his wishes.....

Bucky caught a nervous flicker out of the corner of his eye from Steve Rogers. _' Poor Steve. You trust me with your own life but you don't know how to feel about Howard Stark Sr.'s murderer focusing on Anthony Edward Stark while he's laying there completely helpless and vulnerable do you?'_

Any possible existing assassination plots that may have been made against Tony Stark were redundant now anyway. The man's own body was posed to take him out at any second now.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Dr. Ezekiel Skrooner did not like the case at all anymore. At first it had been the opportunity of a lifetime with a complex intriguing situation involving cutting edge technology and an immensely important client richer than a god.

Now he felt more like a first year medical student, or a back alley dark-ages hack, out of his depth, rather than a top leader in his field.

He was going to be one of those who would most likely take the blame for the loss of the founder and lead contributor of his hospital's parent company The Maria Stark Medical Foundation.

Professional and moral suicide. That is if he even survived this meeting...

The tall strawberry-blonde red-head alone was more than capable of scaring the hell out of him. The three, well muscled, stony-faced men standing sentry at her back just made it a million times worse.

" We've been collaborating with other experts from top places all over the globe," Strangely enough the staffs of the Lillian Luthor Memorial affiliates had been particularly quick to jump on due, for some unknown reason, to some pretty strong orders to assist from up top. " But really, in all honesty, the patient shouldn't even have feasibly been able to survive as long as he already has...." He winced even as the words were coming out of his mouth. Patients' families never liked hearing hard truths and movers and shakers of the world tended to react badly to negative answers.

He held his breath wondering how close he was to being murdered with one of Ms. Potts billion dollar high-heeled shoes that his wife so obsessed over.

" But he did. Tony's beaten the odds before." The military man, Rhodes, made the statement a challenge. As though any indication that the patient was not doing so was evidence that the doctors weren't doing their jobs.

One of the two bland nondescript bodyguards twitched and suddenly they were no longer background menace even though they hadn't changed their positions.

The entire thing was completely unfair. Mr. Stark's medical file read like some kind of science fiction novel. Over half the things made no sense and the rest were either preposterous or insane! Laws of physics and the human body just could and didn't work like that....

And as if the situation hadn't already been bad enough a woman's scream sharp and piercing suddenly echoed in from the hallway making him jump nearly out of his skin with surprise.  

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm sorta combining the universes here as well as AUing it all so lets just say Tony has had a lot of operations already for a bad heart even before the shrapnel ( and even more after 'cause of the whole superhero life-style).


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rewinding back to before the operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is curious to know- the other two men scaring the doctor were Happy and Phil.  
> And someone else not me came up with the idea of the dissolvent for dealing with a sticky baby Spidey! So they get the credit and kudos for it!  
> I so sorry this next part took so long to get posted!

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" It had to be asked. This was Tony after all and some of the thoughts that routinely came out of his mouth.....

The presently preoccupied man never even looked up from his hand-held computer but instead made a careless dismissing motion with one impatient hand." Good idea? Of course its a good idea! Its a _brilliant idea!"_ Outside the windows beside him spread the tower's view of the city. Faint etchings of sharp metallic angles and texture, like the view of mountain ranges from a plane flying far above, nearly indistinct under the harsh wash of glaring winter sunlight.  

But it was clear on the faces of everyone else in the room that brilliant was not how they would have labeled that plan. Well not Peter, Thor, and Loki because their baby was too young to understand and the aliens were still not yet wholly familiar to certain aspects of life on Earth to realize what Stark was insanely proposing.

"It sounds risky." Natasha. Caution like tending/stealing faded heirloom silk with the anticipation of pins ...or booby-traps.

 Gritty dirt in Tony's oil as the more ground/earth oriented disapproved pessimistically. 

Jarvis was a silver needle and baby-blanket quality yarn that was worry smoothed into the focus of tending to his charges.  

" Bah! Risky shmishky, nothing more than a bit of plastic surgery." Backlit by the spotlight-bright shine the genius inventor's silhouette was a dark featureless impression in danger of being obscured completely.

A familiar thin grey string flew through the air and _thwapted_ itself to DUM-E's wheel track. Peter let out a gleeful squeal. The little robot jerked to a stop with a squeal of his own. It didn't take someone with Tony's level to comprehend from the metal gestures that the bot was expressing both startlement and fear that he could accidently pull the little boy and hurt him if he moved.  The adults closest to the two simply automatically reached for their nearest bottles of special extra-gentle dissolvent, that they had learned to always have on hand, going through the motions of ' sticky Peter clean-up' with the air of routine long rehearsed familiarity.    

" All surgeries have risk -they're surgery. And you're not talking about a minor surgery here but a highly complicated heart surgery! Tony we've seen your medical files," But only after both Tony and JARVIS had very hesitantly, to the point of noticeably having had to force themselves to, released it to the rest of them and even so it still would have not been at all surprising if there had been yet more other information that they hadn't so much as not disclosed as completely deleted and purged from memory of existence . The worse part of it had been the nearly suppressed pain and fear underscoring Tony's joke-that-was-not-a-joke- but- a-warning- and-plea at the time that they 'try not to set off the Obie Countermeasures okay? ' that had let them know just how wary of another betrayal he was.

" You have chunks of ribs missing for starters! You can't just remove the arc reactor, fish out the embedded shrapnel, then sew everything back up good as new! " Tony, and all his doctors, would have already done so long before now if that was true. "It too complicated for that."

" Well duh! Don't worry I got everything all covered! Including the rib thing. I'll get artificial replacements or grow new ones-." Pepper flinched from words that burned like hot embers, causing Tony to guiltily cut the rest of that line of thought off unsaid. But they didn't have to be. Tony had his own version of Extremis and his body was full of the nanites. It was not the same thing at all. "Pep?"

"I'm okay. I'm good." The way her fingers clenched the armrests of her chair so hard it looked like her polished nails were digging in hard enough to puncture right through the leather said the opposite.

Tony's response to that was to go to her and sink down. Resting his arms across her knees and looking up into her down-turned eyes. "They are all gone. I made sure. You're safe. I promise." The look in his eyes was a mixture of warm comforting chocolate and diamond-hard dedication. The quirk that, in the right light and setting, could transform his eyes to a brilliant dark blue shared their brightness clearing the muddy darkness from her light sky gaze. But then inside his was a waver.

There was something going on with Tony,....well more-so than usual for him, that wasn't feeling right  to their non-physical touch. Not a black, gaping, charred hole like Bucky had been in Steve( _that_ was nolonger there instead the still raw and reddened piece was reinserted in place with its severed deadened connections stubbornly rehealing themselves defiantly). No this was unsurprisingly centered  in a trouble area for all of them.

Something had again added more acid to Tony Stark's sense of self-value.......and capability.

"Yes." **I trust you.** She had no doubts that he had fully saved her even if something was now trying to press them on him.

" That's another point. You have so much machinery-." Iron Man was the personification of the refined heavy metal that had always dwelt in the restless breeze of Tony Stark the same way the vibrinium shield had always been a part of Steve Rogers even without the aid laboratory chemicals induced to living muscles.

" I'm practically a cyborg I know. I'll take care of dealing with mechanical hardware while the docs deal with the squishy stuff."

"How are you-? Who do you have who can do that?"

" Me obviously. Its my work and I'm the only one who understands it..well other than the J's." JARVIS  a looming presence in the background of Tony that hide even bigger universes.

" You Are _Not_ going to be conscious for _Open Chest Surgery!"_   Bubbling over chemicals on the shell encasing the oceans of simmering lava as Bruce's agitation level rose.  

" Why not? I mostly was for the first one. And this time I'll have my hands free to help along with much better equitment- Oh and better drugs this time will definatly be a big improvement-...." The genius multibillionaire blinked in confusion. "What?"

Banner was green-tinged and getting greener. " I need to go be alone someplace quiet right now." Shoulders hunched and preceding to charge at the door like the inadimate object had somehow become entirely responsible for everything wrong in his life Bruce still managed to pause long enough to turn a rumbling growled "No." on the other scientist. Then was gone.

The object of that denied permission blinked.....then had the audacity to pout. The real kind that added a scary amount of child-like fragility to the vestige of someone with so long and vast experience  ill-reputed activities.

 " Tony if this is about what happened with the War Machine armor-." Yes Rhodey apparently _could_ harp on about his own perceived failures just as much as he did Tony's 'insanities'.

" No! Well actually yes but not what you're way too obviously thinking." Tony took a calming breath then blurted out. " JARVIS was almost hacked again. Me also. It might even have succeeded unnoticed until too late if not for the latest bashing everything ended up getting which resulted in absolutely everything having to be gone over.....Even then it was only thanks to the Jarvis's protective magic."

A tangled knot noticeably unraveled within the Air Force officer and the smaller bodied entrepreneur unexpectedly found himself enfolded in a fierce hug from behind.

" Do you know who?" Already Clint's fingers were feathering touches on his closest weapons.

"Lots of possibilities. One of my best guesses?...Norman Osborn. And let's just say that as a person he's definitely the type of guy who's kid I don't ever want to have Peter to be hanging around with."

" But what does this have to do with deciding to have your chest split open?"

"Eeh! Nice imagery there."

" All part of the plan. Right Loki?"

The midnight- haired Asgardian/Ice Giant prince was now glaring at him though. " I believe not." One icy hand tugged the collar of his complicated, crystalline-white, long-furred get-up in the distinctly put-out manner he was so good at....even when sitting, and therefore should have been undignifiedly, on Thor's sapphire clad lap. " You appear to have omitted significant factors."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in the comics Tony has blue eyes and in the movies with RDJ, who is now who I see as Tony, they are brown.  
> There was also clearly some influences from the 616( Civil War) universe and all the Spider-man movies in this part.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Tony totally up and changed the plot-line on me!

Now nobody was sitting and almost everybody was shouting.

"What!. Why?" The Iron Man, War Machine, and Rescue suits were all also stirring slightly in their powered-down states like sleepers registering the sense of possible danger.

"Loki explain." Thunder rumbled outside rattling the windows. Thor's hold on the smaller demi-god turned into the kind that a person who had just had their dog or their child try to run into traffic would use.

"You two planned this!"

"Uh uh, no way,the two princesses are not allowed to plan stuff together! We made it a rule and everything."

From downstairs a bellow from the Hulk echoed up in spite of the layers of very good soundproofing.

" I refer Man-of-Iron to not being informed of the level of danger you would be in, which evidently exists given our companions unsettled reactions, while in the hands of midgard healers." A single contemptuous twist and the trickster god had freed himself and re-located to across the room.

Many people unaware of how a real soulbond actually works might have gotten confused by their situation unable to understand how someone could keep things secret from people who's souls and minds are connected to theirs. First off there is a such thing as privacy and personal boundaries- the bonds don't eliminate a person's individual self and not giving a person any privacy whatsoever would be incredible rude....not to mention embarrassingly unpleasant on both sides since there are things one doesn't want to be aware of every detail of.  And just as other people who are in a physical romantic relationship aren't actively having sexual intercourse at every single second so too are the bonds not always going 'full on'. Plus both the mind and the soul are intricate and complex with lots of layers and twists. 

 "So somebody beat your unbeatable programing and this leads you to conclude you need heart surgery?"

"Gah! Don't say beat! They did not beat me! But I'm supposed to be the best.....So how come every fricking time I turn around some two-bit nutjob or government agency too-secret-to-exist is rooting around in my personal innards!"

" My apologies Sir-!"

" Not Your Fault, J."  

"Tony how could you have kept something like this from us...again!"

"What are the authorities doing about?"

" Nothing. He didn't report it." Pepper and Phil would have both known it if he had.

" Godsdammit Tony, why not!"

" Ooo, keep that up and you're going to lose your Mr. Purity image there, Steve!" The fact that the blond supersoldier had reached over and covered Peter's young ears before he'd uttered the word just made it all the better a comeback.

" Tony has nothing other than a suspicion to offer them. With no solid proof there is nothing we can give them to make a case."

" And believe me if there had been anything Pepper would have already have sicced several bushels of the lawyers on it."

" The lawyers don't come in bushels Tony. We have war fleets." The metaphor, established private joke/reference, or whatever the Pepper was using may have escaped some of them, Steve included, with its specifics but the implications were all too clearly stated. Stark, and Stark Industries( and excetra) had a lot of legal support and were not afraid to use them to attack. 

" The cowardly challenger needs be smited!"

" That was the plan. Wasn't it Tony?"

With someone like Steve, Happy, Rhodey, or Thor an opponent would likely to be confronted directly and openly( though thankfully they do also understand the necessities of things like bluffing, feigning, stealth, and other sneakier advantages in a confrontation). Phil, Clint, and Natasha tend to make those they deem 'an issue' disappear. But Tony and Loki, as well as Pepper, were seasoned professionals and victors in the 'high-societies' 'own version of the mercilessly cruel struggle for survival that was comparatively as nasty an environment as any criminal organization's, or outcasts' and dregs'( and though the 'blood' they spill is usually metaphorical and in the form of wealth and reputation it is no less devastating for those 'destroyed').

Tony's grin was evil. "Way too many people who'd like me dead know I've got a bad ticker and that the best way to put me down is to pull out my battery. So we'll make that method obsolete while setting up the perfect bait, namely poor widdle moa, for the hacker to try and hit again!" 

" Only this time he'll land right in the magical trap Loki and Jarvis are setting."

" Like a fly into a spider-web. Only hopefully with less body fluids."

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still here!  
> I write way too slow I know! And I completely re-wrote this chapter four times before posting it!

 

The little suburban library was dark, quiet, and long closed, or long before opening hours, at three in the morning.

The perfect time and place for an assassin of over sixty years experience to do some quiet research on the people that the friend from his lost and vague childhood had given himself to. 

 

**Howard Stark & Wife Killed In Car Crash!**

 

The newspaper headlines shouted out catching the soldier's eye unexpectedly from amidst the list of hits on the internet search.

_'That's not right'_ His memory may be missing a great many number of things but Howard Stark's death was sharp and clear.

_'.." Now, you bastard! Do it!"...'_

A Mercy Killing. Compelled from an assassin who had no mercy.

 

_Howard Stark(JR) and his wife Maria-...._

 

Howard's son. That explained things better.

 

_...coroner reports state that both drivers were heavily intoxicated-..._

 

 

" Tony's got way better computers at The Tower." The archer broke the silence the same way his arrows did targets.  " Although with JARVIS and all I guess I can see why it would seem like a bad idea to try and dig into Stark's past there." Barton continued talking even as he noiselessly hopped off the top of a high and heavy old bookcase into sight.

" I could have shot you both just now." The legendary killer pointed out unfazed without even glancing in the direction of the redhead coming up behind him.

"Naw, you really couldn't have. You could have tried though."

Stalemate.

A newspaper article with a large picture of a group of aircraft flying in the distance popped up next on the still continuing to scroll screen.

"Many people thought all that fuss was made because Tony was very wealthy and that the military wanted its top weapons designer back. Only a handful realized it was Rhodes, Potts, and Jarvis....as well as JARVIS who would not stop searching using any and all resources they could to do it." Romanov tilted her chin indicating the preserved image of an event none of them were involved in as if he older assassin was meant to see some significance there. 

" Steve was trapped in an iceberg Barnes. That doesn't count as giving up." Barton softly continued.

" It wouldn't have mattered. James 'Bucky' Barnes was already dead." And yet he still felt something frozen inside him crack and break.

" Bullshit. So is Clint Barton and that kid still does most of my talking." A maniac grin flashed wild, dark, and broken across the easygoing face before melting into something softer as the archer flicked his eyes over to take in his partner when her movement caught his focus.

"Now lets get you back to Steve. He's having a Tony and Loki inspired freak-out that would probably end better if you were there to ease him out of it."


	6. Chapter 6

Tony was _not_ hiding. He was working. Just because he had locked himself inside the innermost lab with the music cranked up full blast didn't mean he was blocking the other's attempts to talk some sense into him. No it didn't. Not at all...

It wasn't like he had suggested that any of then perform the operation(s) without the proper equipment in the middle of a firefight or something!

Besides, the latest Iron Man suite had a new glitch in it ....

" And what's this? Now you're reprogramming yourself on me? What's the matter didn't you like the old commands?" 

**_Previous parameters inefficient for the protection of Creator_ **

" Trying to convince me you're embracing your inner Skynet, Matrix, and Hal then?"

He was answered with mentally projected sneer at the idea that it could even be compared to those errorously ignorant and inferior creations.

"Well yes that's all fine. So what is your excuse then?"

_**Previous parameters inefficient for the protection of Creator. System 'Tony Stark' erroneously placed below correct level of importance.** _

Instinct and a lifetime of experience had him opening his mouth automaticly to respond with either bright egotistical boasting or honest firmness on the correctness of his ranking system of peoples' importance.

The suit didn't let him have a chance to do either. One metal hand moved to spread a palm lightly on Tony's chest. The palm-centered repulser laying gently against the warmth of the breathing human flesh next to where the arch-reactor nestled. The other gauntlet rose to carefully cup the dark head.   

_**Without Tony Stark the systems that Creator ranked higher priority cannot function.**_  

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, its been forever! This took so long because I kept re-writing it, getting overwhelmed by it, being distracted by reading other peoples' fanfictions and being awed by their works, and getting attacked by hectic holiday chaos! And a medical emergency in the family. I'm so sorry! ( Yes I've apparently turned into one of those writers who has to apologize all the time because they are slow at updating)

Dawn finally at last began peaking its way up over the ocean and through the twisting man-made maze, that was the city horizon, revealing a mess of half-dozing bodies laying mixed up together on the floor of the penthouse's great room. Not the worst place, or way, to find himself waking up thanks to a Tony situation.

Barnes had come slinking in at one point( four am) with all the skittish reluctance of a stray and then had proceeded to try and skitter off to who-knows-where again but Steve had carefully detangled himself out from the tangle-pile of Tony, Pepper, Bruce, Thor, and Loki and managed to catch him at the door. The blond soldier moved carefully, as the other froze up at his very proximity, deliberately telegraphing each of his slow movements and attempts to get close but while also broadcasting a clear wish not to crowd the other. Every time the cyborgic assassin twitched in almost terrified seeming flinches Rogers would ease back. Not far and not like he could hide how much it was costing him to hold back from his childhood friend. But eventually Steve managed to take hold of his Bucky. Grasping him much as on would something like a moth that they wished not to harm but was too easy to accidently crush. Barnes' eyes had flickered between Rogers and the others. And Rhodey had found himself reacting to the scrutiny by trying to pull Tony and Pepper closer to himself protectively, despite( or maybe further fueled by) the responding resistance from where the other Avengers were wrapped around them, while never taking his eyes off the possible threat. A few beats latter the Winter Soldier seemed to melt slumping into the hold for a moment before switching into insistently tugging his mate out of the room with him. Rhodes was only able to look away from the spot where the two old-time soldiers had been standing when Thor startled him by  unexpectedly moving to drop his own blond head  burrowing his face in the crook of Loki's neck with a sound that reminded Rhodey that Barnes and Tony( who yeah had somehow been the only one that managed to sleep through the entire thing ) weren't the only two to have once been taken from their loved ones and declared dead. 

The trickster god murmered something too low and alien for his ears to make sense of just as Barton scooted in closer breaking the settling solemnness with a too Tony-like manner that consisted of  whining in exaggerated yet soft-voiced complaint "Aw man, look at that, we like totally missed the slumber party! My cool status at school is gonna be like completely ruined now!"

"Means you'll have more time now to keep up with your grades." The more senior agent quirked a almost-smile at the archer before laying a reassuring hand on a now worriedly confused Thor to let him know that Barton wasn't being serious. Hard to believe this Agent Coulson was the same guy who had come across as just another middling bureaucratic paper-pusher when they'd first met him. With Clint's head resting on his shoulder, and the rest of the Avengers resting safely and peacefully in sight, or at least within acceptable range, the government suit looked more like contently relaxed yet vigilantly alert guard-dog watching over his household. None of the three SHIELD agents looked like they had been up all night but then again they also didn't look like they'd gone to bed at any point either.

Romanov though briefly eyed the unopened bottles, that were laying on the floor under the table nearby that Tony had needed to be coaxed out from under earlier, and settled in softly next to Banner. The incident hadn't been bad at all since the other man had seemed more interested in cuddling the booze than actually drinking any of it. But he had gotten his hands on the stuff while the rest of them were mostly being distracted by wondering if they should have been worried at the way the former weapons-designer had hot-footed it out of his lab in a way that was too uncomfortably reminiscent of the times when something was unintentionally about to blow up. Thankfully this time nothing actually did so there was really no clue to what that bit of Tony-weirdness was about.

Under his hand he felt his friend's sudden flinch away from the pressure of his touch and guiltily realized his hand had accidently brushed over where the housing of the reactor met scared flesh. When Tony was awake and alert he could control the automatic fear response to having someone touching that major spot of vulnerability. But asleep-. As maddeningly as it hurt to experience Rhodey knew, he knew damn it, that it wasn't intended, not a rejection, but the instant response caused by a past monster's betrayal( and let's face it, every other threat that comes across Tony and is automatically drawn to that big shiny obvious target spot) that had taught a painfully learned lesson for some sense of self-preservation. Out of everything, of all the ways all the things Tony did that he shouldn't or didn't do when he should, (all the fear and anxiety for the idiot genus' well-being that Rhodey, Pepper, Happy, and Mr Jarvis had forever taken on because the moron didn't bother having any of his own when it came to himself), it was in this tiny little fretful motion that the guy had to be a normal person. Naturally it was in a way that Rhodey himself was useless to help. He hadn't even realized it the time when Tony was hiding that he was godsdammed dying on him! He always seemed to be letting the smaller man down during the times he needed Rhodes the most. Not that Tony himself thought this, though that might have not been the best reassurance given this  _was_ Tony after all, but Rhodey wasn't convinced. How often in the past had people who knew about Soul Bond- type relationships not believed Tony was part of one? Even after the arch-reactor's appearance Tony'd had moments of discovering all new previously unimaginable highs and lows in rampant overindulgent hedonistic displays. Tony had made himself a top king of exceptionally extreme partying with expertise on some of the most exclusively leveled out-of-control shit that was over-the-edge beyond anything most other people could have pictured in their wildest imaginings. The number of times that Tony had almost been murdered or just plain died from 'having fun'.... for those who loved him his self-destructive  'Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol ' was worse than almost anything 'The Merchant of Death' could become. It wasn't right and it shamed him to his core but if Tony ever went dark-

And Tony knew. He had more than once flat-out admitted, in his convoluted and quirky Tony way, that it was Rhodey and Pepper's feelings of shame or self-disgust at doing something they thought wrong that kept him in check more than any feelings about himself ever could. _'Goes both ways Tony.'_   As often a they'd played Tony's moral side there had been times when he'd turned around and returned the favor.

His feelings of pride for the sweet bundle of contradictions he held snuggly onto evidently had leaked across their links again because he soon found Pepper and Tony had both moved to nestle more closely. Which was better than good....right up until the weight of Banner's gaze registered having grown impossible to overlook.

Unlike the Soul Linking between Coulson/Barton/Romanov or Loki and Thor the one Rhodes had with Pepper/Tony and to a milder extent Happy didn't merge into one with the rest of the Avengers. Actually they had a seriously complex thing trying to function here. Steve was Bonded to Barnes, but Steve( and not Bucky Barnes) was part of the Bond between the founding members of the Avengers team. Tony was Bonded to Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and a part of that same Avengers Bond. Rhodey was not really strongly Bonded with Happy and was not a part of the Avengers Soul Boned group even though he was now a member of the Avengers team( as was Barnes and some others since Tony and Steve were evidently handing out memberships left and right)-

It was a confusing mess.

But that pretty much meant that right now Banner was too much like a rival competing with him for his Tony and Pepper. If the Hulk decided that Rhodey was a threat to the Avengers developing soul connection...... 

The mutate's stare was unyealding. To hold steady eye contact would be to risk challenging the Hulk. But to look away could be seen as weakness and might also rouse the green monster into trying to take away Rhodes' older and more established claim.

' _No way in hell buddy boy!.'_   Fist bunching the soft fabric to pull his lovers closer and muscles tensing he waited for Banner's reaction.

Only it wasn't Banner who made the next move. Instead Jarvis stepped between them and calmly crouched down to wake Tony with all the dignity as if Tony was in his own bed and not passed out on the floor.

"Master Tony, Lady Pepper, if you don't rise now you will be running late for your morning meeting."

JARVIS piped up joining in with his morning report and opened the rest of the window blinds, well actually what he really did was change the settings on the window glass so that they let the increasing light in, causing more than one unhappy groan all around.

Tony whimpered in protest and tried to both burrow himself under Rhodey and scoot back closer to Banner at the same time. But the white-haired butler just continued stroking his hair in the soothing manner of one dealing with a fretful child.

"Tony, wake up."

Naturally the only answer was another pitiful sound that declared the word a bad, mean, evil place and you yourself a terribly cruel person for even thinking of forcing him to confront it... Yes, Rhodey could understand most forms of Tony-speak and 'not wanting to wake-up' was one of the most common ones and so easily familiar. 

"He's faking."

' _No kidding super assassin! You really think we don't know that after all the years we've been with him?'_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It looks like there may be a bit of friction between some of the separate SoulBonds. And if you're wondering about Tony ever being the one convincing Pepper to do the more moral thing then remember in Iron Man where he wanted her help 'to do the right thing'....okay sure it involved spying on Obie but still!

**Author's Note:**

> ( SPOILER MENTION)  
> I have CA2:TWS spoilers in the tags because the identity issue and because in my story line Howard Stark Sr. (the man Steve and Bucky knew) was assassinated by a certain someone. And the trauma of his father's death is what helped fuel the obsession of Howard Stark ' Jr.' (Tony's dad) for finding Captain America. Then it is Howard Jr. that gets targeted by Hydra but dies with his wife in a car accident instead( because a fatal car accident still makes the most sense if its not a cover up). So sorta spoilers.


End file.
